Big Plays, Bigger Letdown
Best bite: With his eighth career kick return for a touchdown, Devin Hester tied Bears legend Gale Sayers' club record Sunday.
Worst bite: What Devin Hester giveth, Minnesota's Adrian Peterson taketh away.
Packer bite: Remember the years when it was considered a successful season if the Bears beat Green Bay? This, dear friends, is one of those years.
Sour bite: The Bears didn't enter the red zone until halfway through the fourth quarter Sunday. It's hard to win a game when you can't get inside your opponents' 20 yard line for the first 52 minutes of a 60-minute game.
Reality bite: Fox analyst Brian Baldinger suggested Minnesota's Peterson makes the game look easy. Of course, when you're rushing against the Bears' curiously anemic defense, it is.
Bang bite: It's hard to tell which object Lance Briggs hit harder: Vikings running back Adrian Peterson in the first quarter or the Edens Expressway guardrail in August.
Sad bite: Witnessing Devin Hester play this season is much like watching James Gandolfini in "Surviving Christmas." It's sad to see someone so talented stuck in such a clunker.
Numerical bite: The Bears posted four turnovers, zero takeaways and a lot of missed tackles. "Normally when you play football like that, you lose the football game," Bears coach Lovie Smith said.
Offensive bite: Would someone tell Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner that the forward pass was invented in 1895? He should feel free to use it effectively during the first three quarters of the game.
Nostalgic bite: Anyone else long for the preseason when we all drank the Bears Kool-Aid and believed this was a Super Bowl-bound team?
Sound bite: "We've got 10 weeks in our regular season remaining, and that's a lot of football. I know the guys in our locker room have the character to come back and work hard. It just starts with one game."
-- Bears quarterback Brian Griese, winner of this week's Pollyanna Award.
Optimistic bite: Think it can't get much worse than this? Imagine the team without Hester or kicker Robbie Gould. Scary, ain't it?
Improvement bite: Here's hoping Cedric Benson carefully observed Viking Adrian Peterson and took notes as to how a real franchise running back plays.